We got good news and bad news.
The good news is that our little Brownie (pictured) is doing much better now. She used to have really bad coordination problems but recently has greatly improved. She can even properly balance on the wooden blocks now. She still gets hand fed, but I’m sure it won’t be neccessary for much longer anymore.
The bad news is that I will not be able to keep pigeons anymore after our current two Brownie and Piet have left. The reason is a chronic allergy against bird proteins that was recently diagnosed for me. At the end of 2017 I started to have increasing problems with my breathing which eventually got quite severe. I got tested for quite a few things and was looking for answers for many weeks. I am still not sure about all aspects and will continue to find our more, but right now all evidence points to this.
After the diagnosis and now with the medication my breathing has improved a lot, but in order to avoid serious long term complications, I’m forced to give up chronic exposure to birds and therefore give up Twenty Thousand Pets. Having to do this is quite painful for me and of course, frankly, sucks for the pigeons. I will continue to involve myself in other aspects of pigeon advocacy and other animal rights activism, but an important part will now be missing for me.
Piet and Brownie currently live in our basement (don’t worry, it’s a nice room with windows) and are cared for by my partner, who is helping a lot.
We’ve had a good run. Thanks for reading.














